Samsung ML-1210 and Windows 7 – the driver
So… Install Windows 7, hook up the Samsung ML-1210 printer, and…
…well not much happens. If you’ve gone to Samsung’s site, you may have found 2 possible files to download (technically more, but only 2 that have any hope of working), and you’ll find that neither seems to work well.
The Universal Print Driver will install, and you’ll probably get it to even find your ML-1210 eventually. If you get farther than that, congratulations! You’ll have gone farther than I was able to with that package.
The GDI driver on the other hand will refuse to install. Windows will pop up and ask if you want to try compatibility mode. Unfortunately, it’ll still refuse.
The solution?
No, it’s not a Lexmark E210 driver this time (I tried it… no such luck).
The solution is simple, but not elegant.
1) Download the GDI driver install package from Samsung’s site. If you’re lazy, I’ve uploaded it here:
20070128180408375_ML-1200_GDI_Vista.exe
Or zipped in case you have problems with the above (make sure you unzip before continuing):
20070128180408375_ML-1200_GDI_Vista.zip
2) Right-click on the file, choose Properties.
3) Run in Compatibility Mode for WINDOWS VISTA. Also check RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR. Click OK once you’ve selected those.
4) Run the program. It should install without warnings now (and let you print a test page).
One issue is that you’ll end up with 2 copies of the Printer in the “Devices and Printers” control panel. The first is the original non-working one, and the second is the new working one. It’s kinda ugly, making this an ugly solution for now, but it works.
At the very least you should have your ML-1210 up and running with Windows 7. Hopefully Samsung eventually spits out a proper Windows 7 driver package, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Note that this was done using the 64-bit version of Windows 7. I’d be surprised if the 32-bit version went any differently though, so instructions should be the same.
the solution works also for windows 7 32 bit. You get an ML-1200 printer visible as installed, but it works in direct mode for an ML-1210
Thnak you, you realy save my day with this instruction!
Thanks! Drivers work perfectly! And you save my day as well!
Thanks! Worked perfectly for my laptop running windows 7 64-bit.
You’re a legend Matt! Am just about to upgrade to Win7, thought I’d check if I was going to encounter any probs, and found your useful info & link to the GDI install pack. You’ve saved me some amount of stress with my upcoming install. Thanks so much.
Worked great (Win 7 64) and after you update the driver (device manager) it fixes the driver and removes the first printer icon!
I’m joining the prevoius appraisals – thank you, it worked perfectly!
Excellent, worked great!! Windows 7 appears to be fairly agreeable with everything else.
Thanks, worked as described, Vista Ultimate SP1 with ML-1210.
A cleaner way of doing it would be to extract the files from the exe available above. With winrar installed, right-click > extract.
Now you have all the print drivers. Simply update the drivers with the ones extracted. It has both 32 and 64 bit drivers.
Thanks very much for this. It is slightly more complex to install when the printer is a Network printer on another (XP) machine. At the time I first installed it on this PC, I had to use the Lexmark E210 driver to get it to print from Vista 32-bit. Now I’ve upgraded to Windows 7 64bit and knew that at best I’d find a Vista driver of some sort, expecting to use the Lexmark ones again.
I found it worked for me by installing the GDI driver locally first on Win 7, by running the GDI exe file downloaded from your link, and telling the install program that the printer was not connected but to go ahead anyway. (It would have been too inconvenient to move the printer over and connect it directly on USB.)
Then I was able to Add a Printer – Network Printer – Browse for printer, select the Samsung on the XP machine, and the rest was automatic. I could then delete the originally installed local printer (maybe it will come back after a reboot!)